1987: STAR BRAND LETTER IN SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS (MARVEL UK)

From January 1987: Whatever happened to the Star Brand?

Regular readers of SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS probably weren't that shocked to see another change in back-up strips when Star Brand was jettisoned after a brief run. After all, they had already seen three other strips fill the "third slot: and also extended periods where the Spidey strip was extended to fill out the extra pages.

But Nic Cooper cared enough to fire off a letter to the London Bullpen... And received a pretty mature and sensible response. This harkens back to the Seventies when Marvel's editors still gave detailed (and occasionally verbose) responses to the points readers raised.

If Nic, or anyone else, still wants to know what happened next: Marvel have just published a trade paperback reprinting the first ten or so issues along with some supplementary material from MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE. But shop around as this isn't the first time the early issues have been collected in book form so you may be satisfied with an earlier outing... which might also be cheaper. A second volume, collecting the post-Shooter installments of what should have been the New Universe's headline series, is due in July and will feature previously unreprinted material from the end of the run.

This page originally appeared in SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS issue 44.

1986: FAILED UNIVERSE (Blackthorne Publishing)

Welcome to: THE FAILED UNIVERSE!

This spoof of Marvel's new-fangled, and ill-fated, NEW UNIVERSE was published by Blackthorne (purveyors of multiple 3D and how-to-draw type comics) in December 1986.

The pages above are a smattering of the contents and not the full issue.

There were initially eight books in Jim Shooter's NEW UNIVERSE ("the world outside your window") line (latterly reduced as the dead weight was ditched and - eventually - shuttered all together) which was intended to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Universe by launching another one.  

Of the eight, only two of the strips popped-up in the MARVEL UK books: Shooter's own STAR BRAND (one of the better books in a highly variable line) was briefly given the third-feature slot in SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS (no single story hung onto the slot for long, six strips appeared in only 51 issues), possibly to ensure their boss remained enamoured to the London operation.  

THE TRANSFORMERS, perennially in search of giant robot-related back-up strips (until ACTION FORCE and THE VISIONARIES became the default second-feaure), dabbled with SPITFIRE AND THE TROUBLESHOOTERS for a while.  

For some reason, M-UK passed on KICKERS INC.  I can't imagine why...

What makes this, for me, even more amusing is that my local comic store (naming no names) drastically (and inexplicably) over-ordered on this one and they had tons of copies which, unfortunately for them, never seemed to shift.  Every week I'd pop it for my weekly pocket money-powered fix of geeky things… and every week the shelf would have (pretty much) the same number of copies sitting there.  This earned the comic the unfortunate moniker 'FAILED Failed Universe'.

It became a waiting game to see how long it would be before the store owner conceded defeat and shifted the unsold stack to the bargain boxes (25p in those far away days) and - sure enough - it was reduced!  

1986: MARVEL'S NEW UNIVERSE TEASER PRINT AD

SHOOTER'S FOLLY

He's an early (the first?) teaser advert for Marvel's 1986 damp squib: THE NEW UNIVERSE.

Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter conceived this new line of Marvel Comics as the main plank of Marvel's 25th anniversary celebrations (dating Marvel back to the launch of Fantastic Four issue 1 in 1961).  Unfortunately, the eight new comics that appeared over the summer of '86 were (to a greater or lesser extent) all pretty terrible.  And none really captured the imagination of Marvel readers.  Shooter himself took responsibility for STAR BRAND which, although derivative (shades of GREEN LANTERN and THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO), was at least readable.  

Marvel used the launch of the New Universe as an excuse to axe some of their lower-selling core universe titles (apparently to free-up creative teams although - as cynics pointed out at the time - Marvel didn't fold any of their best-sellers to release A-list creators) including ROM, MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES, POWER MAN AND IRON FIST and DAZZLER. 

Four (KICKERS INC, MARK HAZZARD: MERC, NIGHTMASK and SPITFIRE AND THE TROUBLESHOOTERS) of the books were unceremoniously dumped after a year with the rest (and Shooter) gone within three years.  

Marvel persevered with several one-shots but it was obvious no-one within editorial (nor the bulk of readers) really gave a toss about keeping any element of the imprint in business.  Since then, Marvel have revisited the New Universe several times, notably UNTOLD TALES OF THE NEW UNIVERSE and NEWUNIVERSAL.

Most (all?) of the New Universe titles were included in the package of Marvel comics distributed in UK newsagents.  Marvel UK briefly ran Starbrand as the third strip in SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS.  Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, because it featured a big red robot, was (for a while) the supporting feature in THE TRANSFORMERS.